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<title>Turning Points #3 — Early Retirement by Idle_Hans</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24905701">Turning Points #3 — Early Retirement</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idle_Hans/pseuds/Idle_Hans'>Idle_Hans</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Turning Points [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Divergence, Canon Divergence - Post-Avengers (2012), Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 03:13:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>214</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24905701</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idle_Hans/pseuds/Idle_Hans</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Turning Points [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1802143</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>42</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Turning Points #3 — Early Retirement</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He swallowed the mouthful of shawarma and spoke.</p><p>"We dodged a bullet today.  What got through into New York airspace wasn't a fraction of what that mother-ship could have deployed."</p><p>Looking at Black Widow, he added, "Romanoff, whoever debriefs Selvig and gets to do the teardown on the portal generator, make sure they look into why those parameters were used.  The way it was set up, only one of those space whales could come through at a time, and they had to do it slowly so as to turn before hitting the ground.  With a different portal size and orientation they could have poured through.  We'd never have held them."</p><p>"You think Selvig sabotaged the invasion?"</p><p>"Maybe.  Doesn't matter.  What does matter is that everything I've done since Afghanistan has been a waste of my time.  Fury's right.  Earth needs to be ready for a higher form of war."</p><p>Stark gave Romanoff a rueful smile.</p><p>"When you said 'Iron Man: Yes, Tony Stark: Not Recommended', you got it backwards.  Iron Man is one man, and that's nothing in the face of a global threat.  Starting tomorrow, Iron Man is retired, and SI is launching a planetary defence division.  What the world really needs from me is the return of Tony Stark, Merchant of Death."</p>
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